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BWW Review: Playhouse Stages a Large Scale ALL THE WAY
'I am in blood stepped in so far that should I wade no more, / Returning were as tedious as go o'er,' says Macbeth in William Shakespeare's tragedy of the same name. I have always felt that these lines could have described President Lyndon Johnson as he doggedly followed his disastrous course in Vie...
THE JUNETEENTH STORY - And Why It Matters
Black History Month is drawing to a close, and again, I wonder why this integral component of American history isn't a more substantial part of the discussion year-round. Imagine for a moment a world without the African American influence on music, sports, dance, entertainment, and fashion. Though i...
BWW Review: RIVER CITY Proves That Looking 'Inside' the Box Is As Important as Looking Outside It
At one point in Diana Grisanti's sharply written RIVER CITY, in its final weekend at Voices of the South, an older character challenges the 'education' that a fourteen year-old black youth has received at St. Thomas, the Catholic-run orphanage in Louisville: The young man may know history from a w...
BWW Review: MOTHERS AND SONS - and Son and Lover - Clash at Theatre Memphis' Next Stage
In Terrence McNally's MOTHERS AND SONS, now playing at Theatre Memphis' Next Stage, there's something out of place in Jack Yates' smart New York apartment set -- and it has nothing to do with furniture. Rather, it's the presence of Karen Mason Riss's 'Katharine,' who, unannounced, has flown from her...
BWW Review: As Much 'Skillduggery' as 'Skullduggery' in A GENTLEMAN'S GUIDE TO LOVE AND MURDER at the Orpheum
A GENTLEMAN'S GUIDE TO LOVE AND MURDER must have been a 'labor of love' for Robert L. Freedman, who wrote the book: After all, it is derived from the brilliant 1949 British comedy classic KIND HEARTS AND CORONETS, which benefited immeasurably by performances by Dennis Price, Joan Greenwood, and --...
BWW Review: Circuit's THE OTHER PLACE Is 'Down the Rabbit Hole'
Throughout Sunday's matinee of Sharr White's intensely watchable THE OTHER PLACE at Circuit, for some reason I kept thinking of Edgar Allan Poe's 'A Dream Within a Dream' and, particularly, of these lines: 'All that we see or seem / Is but a dream within a dream. / I stand amid the roar / Of a sur...
BWW Review: LOVE LETTERS Is GCT's Valentine to the Community
In his Sonnet 116, William Shakespeare wrote, 'Let me not to the marriage of true minds admit impediments' -- and impediments there are aplenty in A.R. Gurney's oft-performed LOVE LETTERS, which Director Anthony Isbell and a sterling, rotating cast of three couples has staged at the intimate Germant...
STAR TREK: THE ULTIMATE VOYAGE Docks in Memphis
Gene Roddenberry had a bold vision when he pitched his inspiration to NBC as a 'Wagon Train to the Stars' in 1964. The first episode of Star Trek aired on Sept. 8, 1966. It was a show with unknown actors, and limited special effects, but what it lacked in flash, it made up for in sensibility. Americ...
BWW Review: 'Will No One Rid Me of This Troublesome Wife?' Theatre Memphis' THE LION IN WINTER
Let's see now -- older married man with mistress, seething ex-wife, resentful and mistrustful offspring -- where was Dr. Phil? Alas, nowhere in sight in Chinon during the Christmas of 1183, as the powerful English king Henry II has released his imprisoned wife (and sparring partner) Eleanor of Aqu...
BWW Review: Green Day's AMERICAN IDIOT Pulsates at Playhouse
Now that Peter has returned to Neverland and the good citizens of Tuna have returned their yard ornaments to their garages and attics, Green Day's AMERICAN IDIOT has seen to it that all the kiddies need to be tucked away in bed: Playhouse's electrifying production of the punk rock musical odyssey, w...
BWW Review: Theatre Works' BYHALIA, MS Plays 'the Race Card' - But There Are Others Up Its Sleeve
Evan Linder's BYHALIA, MS, a winner of the 2014 NewWorks@The Works Playwriting Competition, came about at an interesting time. I had recently heard an interview on NPR featuring Alabama-born Walton Goggins, currently co-starring in Quintin Tarantino's THE HATEFUL EIGHT. Goggins, a gifted actor, made...
BWW Review: NEWSIES Is the Orpheum's Latest Edition
There was a moment tonight in the Orpheum's presentation of NEWSIES that I envisioned the entire production as an animated feature -- and why not? There was the infectious music of Alan Menken, who long ago set the 'gold standard' for the resurgence of Disney animation beginning with THE LITTLE MERM...
BWW Review: Playhouse's I LOVE YOU, YOU'RE PERFECT, NOW CHANGE Is . . . Nigh Perfect
During the Holiday Season, theatregoers looking to dodge 'fairy dust' and seek for something beyond the shadow of the Ghost of Christmas Future might as well have a Christmas stocking with a hole in it. Occasionally, the 'grownups' might find something like the dark and challenging THE SEAFARER, whi...
BWW Review: Out of the 'Flying PAN' and Into the TUNA Casserole
Whether it's fruitcake or eggnog, people love their traditions during the Holiday Season -- and you'd better not disappoint. Memphians are accustomed to cranky 'Ebeneezer Scrooge' hoarding his coins at Theatre Memphis, and in midtown, we're resigned to A TUNA CHRISTMAS at Circuit and PETER PAN at Pl...
BWW Review: A BOX OF YELLOW STARS Shines Brightly at Theatre Works
Produced by the Women's Theatre Festival of Memphis, Natalie Parker-Lawrence's A BOX OF YELLOW STARS is a play inspired by true events -- one man (we never know his name) rescues fifteen women from the horrors of the Holocaust by . . . marrying each one and taking her beyond the reach of the Nazis...
BWW Review: The Orpheum Offers a Flippin' PIPPIN
There are the warhorse musicals of Rodgers and Hammerstein, Cole Porter, and Irving Berlin; there are the lavish productions befitting Phantoms in opera houses and French revolutionaries and revisionist fairy tales (and you know the ones I mean); there are the Disney powerhouses; and . . . there are...
BWW Review: Loss and Laughter and Stirred Memories in Jerre Dye's SHORT STORIES at Voices of the South
People shuttle back and forth at an airport, dragging their luggage behind them. A preoccupied 'Rider,' texting away, impatiently boards an uber cab as his Indian driver eagerly greets him -- and enthuses that they were almost destined to meet. As the passenger, initially annoyed at the driver's pra...
BWW Review: Theatre Memphis' Next Stage Raises DOUBT
The set for Theatre Memphis' Next Stage production of John Patrick Shanley's Pulitzer Prize-winning DOUBT impresses with its austerity: The walls and doors are of rich,dark wood; the red leather chair behind the principal's desk and the furniture in the room are carefully arranged; everything seem...
BWW Review: At New Moon Theatre's TITUS, Tamora Gets Hers 'Sonny Side Up'
Probably the best (of the few) productions of TITUS ANDRONICUS was the 1999 film directed by Julie Taymor. Anthony Hopkins, donning his apron from SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, was a witty choice as 'Titus,' and Jessica Lange, years before jumping with abandon into the excesses of AMERICAN HORROR STORY, was...
BWW Review: Theatre Memphis Plays 'Cats and Mouse' With WAIT UNTIL DARK
The set alone is testament as to why Theatre Memphis invariably is recognized during awards season for its designers -- two dominant windows admitting shifts in light as darkness falls, steps descending into a blind woman's apartment (steps on which menacing characters will align themselves as they ...
BWW Review: Circuit's CARRIE THE MUSICAL Takes the Hearse Instead of the Limo to the Prom
From what I've gathered, the original production of CARRIE THE MUSICAL would have been a dream project for Bialystock and Bloom, THE PRODUCERS: There's something eyebrow-raising about taking Stephen King's novel CARRIE and drenching it - not just in blood, but in music and lyrics. Evidently, Michael...
BWW Review: CINDERELLA Enchants at Memphis Orpheum
CINDERELLA is the only Rodgers and Hammerstein musical that was originally written for television. Its first performance was broadcast live on CBS on March 31, 1957 as a vehicle for Julie Andrews, who played the title role. It was subsequently remade for television twice. The 1965 version starred L...
BWW Review: Playhouse Plays MATCHMAKER
Interestingly, Playhouse on the Square has opted to produce Thornton Wilder's THE MATCHMAKER rather than HELLO, DOLLY, the legendary musical that it spawned - and therein lies both the blessing and the curse: There are so many lines here that served as song cues that the specter of Jerry Herman's 'e...
BWW Reviews: Poignant Palmers Ace The Gin Game
Two lonely people find each other in a nursing home, they hit it off, and a congenial conversation leads to a series of card games. But in that sequestered and artificial world, low stakes become high. When one's life is over, without being over, what else could happen? Both characters are complex, ...
Videos
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Primary Trust Circuit Playhouse (5/08-5/31) |
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The Dreamboats Graceland Soundstage (7/03-7/03) |
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Edwin McCain and Five For Fighting Graceland Soundstage (6/05-6/05) |
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Elmiene Graceland Soundstage (7/17-7/17) |
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Suffs The Orpheum Theatre Memphis (7/28-8/02) |
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Sweeney Todd Playhouse on the Square (6/12-7/12) |
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Gladys Knight Graceland Soundstage (6/19-6/19) |
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Titanic Department of Theatre and Dance, University of Memphis (4/22-4/25) |
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Buddy Guy Graceland Soundstage (10/29-10/29) |
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Leanne Morgan Thompson Boling Arena (12/12-12/12) |
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